Apple Will Start Sending Special Devices To iPhone Hackers

Apple has announced that it will send special devices that make it easier to find flaws and vulnerabilities in its mobile operating system iOS to iPhone hackers that apply and qualify for a program the company announced last year. From a report: The program might make some hackers less likely to engage in the underground market for stolen prototype iPhones hackers currently use to research iPhone security, and encourage them to share their findings with Apple. In a new website published on Wednesday, Apple wrote that the program "features an iPhone dedicated exclusively to security research, with unique code execution and containment policies." It's called the Security Research Device Program. Security researchers can apply for it starting today and Apple told Motherboard that if they qualify they will receive the devices soon. Apple doesn't have a goal in terms of how many of these devices it wants to send out, and all you need to qualify is having a public track record of security research, not only on iPhone but also on other popular devices and software like Android phones, Windows, or Linux.

Re:And will they trun down the FBI request for one

[battingly]

I hope so. The goal here is to protect the privacy of iphone users, not to infringe upon it.

Re:

[taustin]

Especially if those iPhone users are criminals?

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

but then they better say no to China FBI's

Re:And will they trun down the FBI request for one

[tlhIngan]

but then they better say no to China FBI's

Apple hasn't done anything for China they didn't do for the FBI. The FBI wanted access to a phone and Apple said they couldn't do it, same to China.

Only thing Apple did for China was move the iCloud servers into China for Chinese users. But Apple has provided iCloud data to the FBI on request numerous times so there's no big deal there, either.

If the Chinese can access iPhones while Apple denies access to the FBI, the FBI would've made such a huge stink about it years ago when they're requesting Apple unlock phones. Both have to turn to third party companies to break the phones for them.

Re:

[scilover]

all phones should do the same I guess.

Back in the olden days we called them Beta Testers

[jellomizer]

Back in them good old days, we use to have Beta Testers, who would often get their hands on the Beta versions of the product, in which often their payment was being able to have first look at the product, and probably a free version of the final release version. Some companies had intensives for these Beta Testers to report all glitches they see so they can fix them before the release.

I have found that a lot of companies are no longer as interested in Beta Testers, mostly due to the fact that they want to

Re:Back in the olden days we called them Beta Test

[tlhIngan]

Beta testers are for testing new products and releases.

It sounds like these devices might have tools that make the security researcher's lives a bit easier - like the ability to downgrade and upgrade software at will, the possibility of console ports to make debugging much easier and other things.

They're less prototypes of new hardware and software, and more like test hardware that enables the researchers to do their jobs more effectively by being able to control various parts of the OS, seeing how far back the issue goes, enabling/disabling signing or kernel verification, consoles and command line access and likely access to network ports for sniffing network traffic and injecting and such.

Seems pretty obvious.

[Gravis Zero]

The program might make some hackers less likely to engage in the underground market for stolen prototype iPhones hackers currently use to research iPhone security, and encourage them to share their findings with Apple.

Sounds like they are just sending backdoored stuff that will report all activity to Apple so they don't really have a choice about it.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Sounds like they are just sending backdoored stuff that will report all activity to Apple so they don't really have a choice about it.

If that was the case, Apple would be willing to send it to everyone and anyone who asked for it, including plenty of iPhone hacking companies. After all, if Apple could get insights into new exploits by just watching the researchers work they'd send it to everyone so they'd get alerts to new jailbreaks and such the moment the companies discover them. And make fixes before the

If they want hackers to report vulnerabilities

[Kitkoan]

Maybe they should pay better then the black market? Sure, they claim that they'll pay "up to" a million (?) But in reality, they pay a fraction of that. The thriving black market is the proof of that. Hackers will go where the money is.